diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 81f0b82c13a..eaa19958763 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@
 
 ### Bugfixes
 
+- [Issue #584](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/issues/584). Don't
+  panic if the process died while initializing
 - [Issue #800](https://github.com/influxdb/influxdb/issues/800). Use
   su instead of sudo in the init script. This fixes the startup problem
   on RHEL 6.
diff --git a/coordinator/protobuf_server.go b/coordinator/protobuf_server.go
index f4ff0720dad..e49abac9147 100644
--- a/coordinator/protobuf_server.go
+++ b/coordinator/protobuf_server.go
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ func NewProtobufServer(port string, requestHandler Handler) *ProtobufServer {
 }
 
 func (self *ProtobufServer) Close() {
+	if self.listener == nil {
+		return
+	}
+
 	self.listener.Close()
 	self.connectionMapLock.Lock()
 	defer self.connectionMapLock.Unlock()